Friday, April 04, 2008

Tories go open source

Interesting to hear from David Cameron MP (via ORG) that the Conservative party will be pushing for the use of open source methods in future IT procurements, putting an end to the IT mega-projects that have so often failed under the current government. He told a NESTA meeting:

"Never again could there be projects like Labour's hubristic NHS supercomputer…

"We want to see how open source methods can help overcome the massive problems in government IT programmes.

"The basic reason for these problems is Labour's addiction to the mainframe model — large, centralised systems for the management of information.

"From the NHS computer to the new Child Support Agency, they rely on 'closed' IT systems that reduce competitive pressures and lead to higher risks and higher costs.

"We will follow private sector best practice which is to introduce 'open standards' that enables IT contracts to be split up into modular components.

"We will create a level playing field for open source software in IT procurement and open up the procurement system to small and innovative companies."

Fascinating to see the Conservatives fitting these Internet issues into their current small-state, "post-bureaucratic age" campaigning agenda.